Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ORACULAR

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pronounce ORACULAR: Say it "or RACK yuh lur." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: Inside the words oracle and oracular, you can almost see the Latin ōrare, meaning "to speak, to beg, to pray." That's why they look like the words oration, orator, p__orate ("to speak in a grand, showy way;") and in__orable ("harsh, severe, merciless, unstoppable, as if deaf to prayer"). Can you recall those last two? (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: The word "oracle" dates back to ancient Greece. According to belief, an oracle was someone who received and shared messages directly from the gods--messages that were wise and profound, as well as predictive of the future. (And an oracle was also the place where these messages were shared.) Loosely speaking, today, an oracle is a prediction about the future, or a thing or person who serves as a wise guide or source of information, especially about the future. So, something oracular seems full of mystical wisdom, information, or predictions. But predictions about the future, or messages believed to be from the gods, can seem hazy or unclear. So, oracular things can also be mysterious in a hazy, unclear way. grammatical bits: Part of speech: adjective: "an oracular power," "the most oracular passage in the text." Other forms: Like you'd expect, we've got "oracle(s)," "oracularly," and "oracularity." There's also a verb, "oraculate," as in "He stood at the podium and oraculated." And if you prefer, you can use "oraculous" instead of "oracular." It's just less common. how to use it: If you enjoy turning the word "spectacle" into "spectacular," or "obstacle" into "obstacular," then you know there's something wildly fun about taking the familiar "oracle" and turning it into the graceful "oracular." So enjoy it as you talk about oracular texts, passages, declarations, writers, speakers, prophets, powers, and tones. examples: "Aunt Maggie Far Away wakes from a near-vegetative state and holds the four young Carney daughters rapt with tales of lost love and predictions of their own futures. It’s a sweetly mystical glance both forwards and backward, whose dark oracular power only becomes clear in the play's final seconds."    — Staff, New York Times, 21 December 2018 "'America,' [the poet Solmaz Sharif] writes in a rare moment of oracular address, 'ignore the window and look at your lap:/even your dinner napkins are on FIRE.'"    — John Freeman Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2016 has this page helped you understand "oracular"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "oracular" without saying "prophetic" or "authoritative." try it out: When the famous oceanographer Walter Munk died, a writer for the Washington Post praised his work: "He was revered in equal measure by surfers and navy admirals for his oracular ability to predict when far-off waves would break on beaches." Who else can you think of who has (or had) such skill, such knowledge, or such a knack for something that their abilities seemed oracular? Talk about why that person's abilities seemed so mysterious and so impressive, like magic, or like divine inspiration. If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. This month, our game is called "Fix the Grand Spell which was Cast by Short Words."  (Or, in monstrously inflated terms, the game is called "Rewrite the Extraordinary Incantation which was Executed by Monosyllabic Vocables.") In each issue, I'll offer a familiar quote that I've heartlessly hypertrophied with polysyllabic transplants. You'll restore the quote to its original version, with each word just one syllable long. That is to say, I'll share a fat, fake draft of a famed quote; you'll say the trim real one. For example, if I say "Exploit an opportunity while the situation allows," then you say, "Make hay while the sun shines." If I say, "Durations remedy every laceration," then you say, "Time heals all wounds." From the previous issue: "Timepieces slaughter temporal spans." --> "Clocks slay time." Try this today: "I cherish you directly upwards to the planet's natural satellite--multiplied by two." Say that, but in words of one beat each. Clues:  Where it's from: a picture book. The year we first heard it: 1988. review this word: 1. Some opposites of ORACULAR include A. CLEAR and SHALLOW. B. FUN and STIMULATING. C. BROAD and WELL-ROUNDED. 2. Can we get the "oracular _____" meme to take off? It's got _____ and endless potential. A. love .. fields of daisies B. doom .. a seated skeleton C. masterpiece .. a van and a traffic cone Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. B a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.